Abstract

Humans are a social species and many social decisions are frequently made in the presence of stressors. Existing studies on the effect of acute stress on social decision-making are mainly using male participants and they deliver mixed results. Using a highly powered pre-registered sex balanced experiment (N=271), we examine the effect of acute stress on social preferences and how it interacts with baseline social preferences and sex. Participants were randomly assigned to a stress treatment, using the Maastricht Acute Stress Task (MAST), or control treatment, using a placebo version of the MAST. Successful stress induction was evaluated by measuring salivary cortisol levels and blood pressure. Distributional social preferences were elicited using a series of incentivized binary dictator games. Our results indicate no main effect of treatment or changes in cortisol on social preferences.

We do find that baseline preferences positively predict social preferences, and that on average this effect is weakened when changes in cortisol are higher. When investigating male and female participants separately, we find that for male participants increases in cortisol strengthens the effect of baseline social preferences, whereas this relationship is reversed for female participants. Our results shed light on the complex relationship between baseline social preferences, the biological stress response and sex, and highlight the importance of considering individual heterogeneity when examining social preferences under stress.

Co- authors : Anne Friesacher and Conny Quaedflieg

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